Comments on: Foreign culture in the classroom

By: Jenny

Jenny — Wed, 11 May 2011 07:20:01 +0000

Hi, I have been working in china as an ESL teacher for over a year – and yes the penny is starting to drop that maybe i am employed as an entertainer..and my enthusiasum is starting to fade….no matter what school/uni i go to the students will ask me to sing a song or do a dance! it seems such a strange request…(dancing bear comes to mind from a previous post)
I think taking the classes to seriously is a definate problem at first – i did – i thought i was employed to teach spoken english and when you have a class of 60 students won’t speak it’s a terrible lonely place at the front of the class!
Infact now after a year at the same uni i play games every other week- yes, whilst falling into the trap of entertainer…it seems this is the only way to relax and make them speak! However the games do have language focus for example idioms or phrasal verbs. Stickers or candy works…even for Uni classes.

By: Haley

Haley — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 01:19:13 +0000

I am going to be teaching in China starting this fall. Thank you for the honest comments. It is the first real view I have had since starting to learn about Chinese schools – I’ve never been to China before and really have no idea what to expect. I’m checking the “notify me of followup comments” at the bottom of the box and would love to know more about what teaching in China and is really like and what students are actually interested in.

By: Justin

Justin — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 23:42:41 +0000

I find it funny that the first thing many chinese english speakers want to learn is american slang. They think that it makes them more like a native speaker. It’s kind of hilarious and a wast of time mostly…

By: Natsun

Natsun — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 21:41:04 +0000

Good luck Lyt!

By: Lyt

Lyt — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 16:36:50 +0000

“It was my first teaching job and I didn’t realise that college English classes in China are a joke.”

I don’t know what colleges are you guys teaching in, but in mine, literature is the biggest thing. I have 4 courses in literarure this term(I’m a junior English major); all require students to submit serious papaers…..Plato, G. Eliot, James Joyce…That really makes me mad. If you don’t take literature seriously, YES my professor will let u fail.

About the “guanxi” thing, that’s the thing I loathe. Like most chinese students from small towns, I don’t have any guanxi in Beijing. So the only passport to success is hard work.

By: nali

nali — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:52:04 +0000

Where is the edit my post button? “THEIR” before anyone corrects me on this or others

By: nali

nali — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:46:44 +0000

I have to say I have gone through phases of thinking that teaching ESL is a joke and not taken seriously by others BUT, I have to say that some things have happened at my school in the past few months that have made me re-evaluate my thoughts. In the small city where I teach, there are not many schools that have the chance to employ a foreign teacher. I’m teaching in a Middle School and as far as I know, only one other middle school in this city also has a foreign teacher on staff. I have a wonderful relationship with the teachers and the kids at my school. The school try and keep good relationships with other schools and kindly let me go to some other middle schools that don’t have the opportunity to see or listen to foreigners talk, let alone teach them something. The difference I see between our kids and the kids I see at these other schools is enormous! My students are full of confidence and their spoken English is very comprehendable. They are also so used to me that there is no shock factor at seeing a foreigner for them anymore. They are not afraid to talk to me and often ask me for help with there Chinese English class homework. I think that you also have to take into account the bridges that are built to bring our cultures closer. I have made the best friends I have ever had with the Chinese staff and the Chinese English teachers learn more and more natural ways to use the English language within our conversations, which they then pass on to the students. I think ESL teachers that really think about what they teach and take the job seriously should feel very proud and know that YES, you are making a difference. You think it’s a waste of time, then the kids think it’s a waste of time…..OH look, maybe thats the problem

By: Matty K

Matty K — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 05:12:27 +0000

Nice idea. A lot of young people in China would love to get overseas, for many it may not happen – but letting them live vicariously and indulge in fantasy through these exercises seems like a good way to motivate them. Making it easier to imagine the direct benefit helps as well.

I did the ‘invention’ lesson too, it seemed to only work when you had a few smart-arses in the class.
Playing the devils advocate can help spark debate and interest as well – but you need to speak rrreeaallll slow so majority can keep up.

By: Matt M

Matt M — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:09:29 +0000

“It was my first teaching job and I didn’t realise that college English classes in China are a joke.”

I feel the same way. They hired me as a literature teacher for junior English majors. It seems that once these children finally get into college there is an overwhelming sense of freedom. The rat race is over. No more oppression by rote memorization. They finally can chill out. They can actually read for pleasure now without their parents looking over their shoulders. They can go to KTV, play video games, watch movies, and play badminton! There is a no fail policy. That’s unofficial by the way. Why bother studying when you don’t have the guanxi to get a decent job in the first place? And if you have guanxi, then you don’t need to study either. The job is guaranteed regardless of skill or ability. I have freshmen who speak better English than my junior English majors. Oral English seems to depreciate by this time. The students want entertainment not education. They are not impressed that I am bringing them the gift of a Western style liberal arts education. They want dancing bears and singing monkeys. I give into their demands. That’s why you will see me wear a sheet to act out Julius Caesar or produce an impromptu skit detailing the penultimate chapter of The Scarlet Letter. But there is at least one student per class who takes critical thinking and literature seriously. And that is why I will continue to teach.

By: Katie

Katie — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:51:39 +0000

@Kellen Parker I think you’re totally right about taking it too seriously. Every time I find an EFL lesson online to work from, it’s always very high-handed, and I wonder if other teachers here are trying to use these sample lesson plans in their class as-is, because I have to modify them so much, there’s barely any remnant of the lesson left. I have to take the vocabulary and expectations way down before I can even get close to my students’ level. Then, of course, I worry that I’m not giving the kids enough credit. But when they won’t speak, even when called on directly sometimes, it’s really hard to tell what they comprehend and what they don’t.

@Dena I can’t seem to get through a lecture on any topic without 4/5 of the class tuning out entirely. Today, I told them we’d be talking about American food and everyone made excited noises. Within 2 minutes of talking about the differences between Chinese and American table manners, more students were reading the newspaper than listening. I thought I was being entertaining, but I guess not so much. I’m also not sure if my students could handle debates (though I wonder what makes them ready to do so by the time they get to college in just over 3 years – again, maybe I’m underestimating).

@Elisa Glad to help!

@FangFang I didn’t say where I teach – I’m teaching in a small town in Hunan province, a few hours away from Changsha. Thanks for the compliment – I was trained as a teacher (though not in English/EFL) in the US, and I really think of teaching as my calling – I’m not great at it yet, but the only way I’ll get better is to keep working at it, so I take it pretty seriously.